From 1 March 2012, some types of residential building work will become Restricted Building Work (RBW), which must be carried out by Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP). Generally, if the residential building work requires a building consent then at least some of that work is Restricted Building Work.If any Restricted Building Work is found not to have been carried out by (or supervised by) a Registered Building Practitioner, then the owner and/or the practitioner could be fined up to $20,000.

What kinds of buildings does the law change apply to?
It applies to building work on a “residential building”:

• A free-standing house, or
• An apartment building with 2 or more residential units, which has no commercial units, and has a maximum height of 10 meters

If you are not sure whether the building that you want to build or renovate fits the above criteria, you can contact Imagine Building Design or check with the Department of Building and Housing.
What is Restricted Building Work (RBW)? RBW refers to residential building work which requires building consent and is structural, or affects the weather-tightness of the building.
Some examples of RBW are:

• work on the foundations, wall studs, roof rafters, columns or bracing
• damp-proofing, water-proofing and cladding
• fire safety systems

The best option is to choose a Licensed Building Practitioner such as Imagine Building Design to design the project, and they will be able to tell you whether that work requires building consent. If it does, they can tell you which bits of work needed to be done by a Licensed Building Practitioner.

Tony Biesiek of Imagine Building Design carries a Design area of practice licence of Design 3 which is the highest class for Design.

For more information contact Imagine Building Design or go to the Department of Building and Housing website http://www.dbh.govt.nz/lbp-consumer